In our current day and age data is the key to success. Those companies with the most comprehensive image of their customer wins. It’s even come the point where we have become the product ourselves (1). Google barely makes any revenue on it’s users but still makes tons of money. This is because in some cases, companies like Google and Facebook know more and more about our preferences. Sometimes even better than we do. This makes these extensive data sets of our personal data worth loads to advertising companies. Already in 2013 Facebook made around 7.8 billion Dollar on ads (2).
In line with this is the acquiring of the immensely popular communications platform WhatsApp, which is basically another source of data for Facebook. Just for fun, go to settings > account > request account information and find out what they know about you. Luckily – also thanks to GDPR – our personal data is relatively well protected. Especially when it comes to companies whose Business Model is solely based on personal data.
However, for some companies safeguarding our data might not be a company wide priority. Last week, one of worlds leading airlines, British Airways suffered a major data breach. Luckily, the theft did not include passports. however, the details of around 380.000 payment cards had been compromised (3). This is especially troublesome for credit card users. Due to the new GDPR legislation BA might face fines up to 500 million pounds, if their behavior were to be judged negligent. This is just the most recent example. Another is Under Armour. They became a victim end of March after a breach in which roughly 150 million records were compromised (4).
With the emergence of all kinds of technologies there’s a bright future ahead. Same-day delivery, smart homes and even self-driving cars etc. However, as these capabilities develop, people with malicious intentions become increasingly smart as well. Therefore, the rapid development we’ve experienced shouldn’t lead to opportunities for the ‘bad guys’. On the contrary, companies should be encouraged to safe-keep personal data. So to all industry leaders, don’t join the dark side and protect your data.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2013/12/04/google-users-youre-the-product-not-the-customer/#5b5cf22276d6
- https://www.business-management-degree.net/facebook
- https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/06/british-airways-customer-data-stolen-from-its-website
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/under-armour-stock-falls-after-company-admits-data-breach.html
